September 1, 2025 • 37 mins
In her final episode as host, Lacy Wolff shares insights on financial wellness through the ERS Buena Vida program and discusses how financial stress affects overall health and wellbeing.
Subscribe to ERS Money Talks Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or through this link.
• Buena Vida ("the good life") is a comprehensive wellness program offering resources for physical, mental, and financial health
• 40% of health assessment respondents report financial stress affecting their health, job, or relationships
• The app serves as a "social media for wellness" with incentives for completing health actions
• Members can earn up to $99 in Buena Vida bucks annually through simple actions like health assessments and preventive exams
• Free mental health resources including MD Live and Doctor on Demand are available through the platform with no copay
• Texas Saver offers retirement planning, budgeting tools, and financial counselors at no cost
• Creating a realistic budget should include items that bring joy to make it sustainable
• The upcoming "Trek Through Texas" challenge encourages 7,000 daily steps (the optimal number for heart health)
• Financial stress impacts physical health through increased blood pressure, heart rate, and disrupted sleep
Thank you for the privilege of serving as your host. Since April 2021, we've recorded 81 episodes with over 28,000 downloads. The Buena Vida podcast will return with a new host after September 5th.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone and welcome to this special episode
of the Buena Vida podcast.
I'm your host, lacey Wolf.
This episode today is going tobe a little bit different
because it is my last as yourhost.
My final day at ERS will beSeptember 5th, so I wanted to
leave you with something alittle bit different.
Today, instead of meinterviewing a guest, I'm
sharing an episode of our sisterpodcast here at ERS Money Talks
(00:23):
.
In this episode, I sat downwith Angelica, dani and Suzanne
from our communications divisionto talk about managing
financial stress and our brandnew Buena Vida program.
This was a fun conversation andI got to sit on the other side
of the table this time as aninterviewee.
I encourage you to subscribe tothe Money Talks podcast, our
(00:43):
dedicated financial wellnesspodcast, because it's full of
helpful insights and greatconversations.
And I also want to say don'tworry, because the Plenipedia
podcast isn't going anywhere.
We'll be back when myreplacement is hired and gets
settled in.
Before we dive into the episode,I want to take a moment just to
say thank you.
Serving in this role at ERS andgetting to host this podcast
(01:05):
has been one of the greatestprivileges of my career.
Since April 20th of 2021, Ihave recorded, edited and
published 81 episodes andtogether we've had more than
28,000 downloads.
Along the way, I've learned somuch from our guests and, more
importantly, from you, ourlisteners.
I also want to thank ourleadership at ERS for believing
(01:27):
in me and taking a chance onthis project.
They allowed us to explore aninnovative communication style
in state government, which isn'talways the norm, and I'm so
proud of the space that we'vecreated.
From the launch of ERS Walk Talkduring COVID to where we are
today.
It's been an incredible journey.
I have loved hearing yourstories, your feedback and your
engagement.
(01:47):
It has really meant the worldto me.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank
you.
Now, please enjoy this episodeof Money Talks.
Here we go.
What we know is everything'sconnected right.
That stress that we canexperience from the financial
side can increase our bloodpressure.
(02:08):
It can increase our heart rate.
It can affect how well we'resleeping.
If we don't have that in order,it's going to be really hard to
go out and live a good, solid,healthy life.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
ERS's own well-being expert, lacey Wolfe, joins
today's episode of Money Talksto share what she sees as
trending among member attitudestowards their finances, their
financial stressors and helpfulERS resources.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Hi everyone, Welcome to Money Talks.
This is Dani Lovefree.
I'm an editor here on MoneyMatters, the newsletter that
distributes Money Talks.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm Suzanne Krauss, also one of the editors of Money
Matters and Money Talks.
I'm Angelica Rivera.
We're really happy to welcomeLacey Wolfe to our podcast.
She's the ERS coordinator ofstatewide well-being initiatives
and in this role she's helpedshare many resources about
well-being with our members, andthat includes financial
well-being.
Welcome, Lacey, Thank you.
We wanted to have Lacey on totalk about the trend she's
(03:02):
seeing and member attitudes totheir finances, what their
stressors are, and share some ofthe resources ERS has to help
members with their financialwell-being.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Thanks so much for having me.
It's really an honor to be hereand to share some of the things
that we're learning through thewellness side of things here at
ERS.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Thanks, lacey.
I want to also mention that youknow Lacey is such an advocate.
She hosts an award-winningpodcast, currently Buena Vida
podcast, formerly known as theERS Walk and Talk podcast.
Many of you may have heard itand we also encourage you to
listen to it because it sharesanother side of this holistic
(03:40):
wellness initiative that we'redoing here at ERS, holistic
wellness initiative that we'redoing here at ERAS.
Most recently, lacey led aninitiative for the Buena Vida
Wellbeing Platform.
Lacey, some people may not beaware of what Buena Vida is.
Can you give us a briefoverview of Buena Vida?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I would love to.
It's one of my favorite thingsto talk about.
So, first of all, I will justsay that we took a lot of time
and put a lot into the branding.
So Buena Vida means the goodlife, and we really wanted to
have a program that would helppeople find their good life,
whatever that is and we knowthat a good life is different
(04:18):
for every one of us, dependingon what we want from our lives,
our situation, our family, wherewe live all of these factors
play a big role, and so BuenaVida is not just a platform or
an app, it's a program, and itreally is all inclusive for all
the things that come, you know,we think of with health and
(04:39):
well-being.
But the platform specificallyI'll talk a little bit about and
share some of the benefits andthe resources that people might
want to know about is throughWebMD.
So WebMD has the contractcurrently to supply this
platform.
We have a mobile applicationand through that you can start
(05:00):
out, you can create a profile,just like I think about it as
social media for wellness, right, so you can go in and create a
profile.
Just like I think about it associal media for wellness, right
, so you can go in and createyour profile and then you can
take a health assessment online,take about 10 minutes and just
through that right away you get$25 this year it's going to
change next year but you earnmoney that you can spend in a
(05:20):
store and that will help tocustomize you in the platform
kind of living your good life,finding the things that are
going to support you most, basedoff of how you answer those
questions.
It has actions that people cantake.
We at ERS really wanted to beable to incentivize things that
we think are important, likedoing your annual preventive
exam, so you can do things likethat and earn money for doing
(05:42):
that.
And we have challenges,community groups to support each
other and a lot of otherresources that can help drive
people toward healthy behaviors.
And every quarter I work withBlue Cross, our administrator of
our health plan, and ourinternal team and agencies to
have campaigns to supportwell-being.
(06:04):
So we have quarterly kind ofcampaigns and then we have
monthly themes within thosecampaigns.
So, for instance, this Augustwe are in the mental health
quarter, but we're focusing onthe financial aspect of mental
health because we know thatfinances can deeply impact our
mental health and our well-being.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
One of the things I really like about the app Lacey
is it gives you all of yourwellness things, access to Hello
Heart, Learn to Live, all thethings that maybe folks don't
know that are offered throughthe health plan in one spot, and
so, rather than having to goout to the website and look all
these different places fordifferent things, you just go to
(06:43):
your app and then you haveaccess to all that information
in one spot.
So that's one of the things Ireally enjoy about it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, that's exactly what we were wanting to build
out was kind of a one-stop shopfor all the things.
So you may say, you know, like,for instance, if I had a
musculoskeletal issue, a reportthat I'm dealing with, chronic
pain, I should see in my takeaction section Hinge Health pop
up there right.
Or if I have a heart conditionor hypertension, I should see
(07:11):
Hello Heart, our heart healthprogram, pop up as a resource.
So, yeah, thank you formentioning that.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, and I think you know it ties directly into
financial wellness, in thatthese are things maybe you
wouldn't know are available toyou at no cost, and so you know,
just having access to that andthose resources, I think not
only is obviously part of yourphysical health, but can
directly impact your financialwellness as well too.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
For sure, and if you think about managing a chronic
condition is stressful and it'scostly, and a lot of people are
trying to do a lot of things ontheir own, may not realize that
we have these amazing benefitsout there.
And sometimes I don't know.
I've seen research of marketing.
You need to see something seventimes before it really
resonates with you, and so it'skind of like we're just beating
(08:00):
that drum through all thedifferent ways that we
communicate and this is, I thinkit's just another great way to
get information out to ourpopulation that may help support
folks.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And Lacey, you had mentioned that people have the
health assessment and one of thecomponents is to answer some
questions about their financialwell-being.
Can you tell us a little moreabout the stats you're seeing in
that?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yes, that's one of the great things about this app
for us at ERS is that when youtake that health assessment, we
can run reports on an aggregatelevel.
I can't look at what anybodysays individually, but we can
see kind of the trends in ourpopulation and we can figure out
how do we need to focus ourefforts to support people more
effectively.
So, for instance, 40% ofrespondents said that financial
(08:44):
stress is affecting their health, their job or their
relationships, and we have.
I think over 12,000 people havetaken that health assessment at
this point, and so that's astat that means something to us.
And again, thinking about allthat y'all are doing by putting
together this great financialpodcast and the newsletter to
(09:05):
support that's how we'reresponding.
You know we're using this dataand actually being able to put
some stuff out there to supportfolks.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, we had some feedback that said you know what
from from a question whatbenefits or tools do you feel
would help you reduce financialstress?
In 24.6 said retirementplanning, so of course we're
always talking about Texas Saver, the 401k 457 program, and then
investment planning was 22.2%,and then help managing cash and
(09:33):
debt issues happen to be an18.2%.
So we're constantly looking athow to budget.
Circling back to somecommunications, even even you
know you mentioned the bringsomething up seven times.
You started with the CarrieCarver, now Carrie.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Winkley story and we pulled that and we're constantly
pushing that informationAbsolutely.
And the Carrie story is sopowerful I hope we can link to
that again in the show notes ofthis episode.
But Carrie's story wasinspirational because she was
able to pay off $40,000.
Was it $40,000?
I think in debt in a prettyshort period of time as a single
mom and I think when we look atfinances a lot of times people
(10:15):
feel super overwhelmed.
Last week I had a really greatspeaker deliver a webinar on
this topic.
He said it's less about what wemake, more about what we do
with what we make and reallyforming those good financial
habits.
And it and that's that's whatwe're trying to do is help with
the education, because obviouslywe're not the employer here at
(10:36):
ERS but we do care deeply aboutpeople's financial health,
mental health, physical healthand especially as state
employees.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Right, that's what's so great about Carrie's story is
she's a state employee and shehas access to the same resources
and benefits that stateemployees have access to, so
it's always great to hear thesuccess stories from other state
employees.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Absolutely, and I think it was interesting just
last week hearing the story fromthe speaker.
His name is Nick Daughtry he.
He talked about just one of thebiggest things that we do in
America is we get into thesehuge car payments.
Right, like, yeah, he said 18percent of people in America was
18 percent of people in Americahave a car payment over a
(11:20):
thousand dollars and in Texasit's we are like the worst
because of our big trucks.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
And we love our cars, we love our cars.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
$1,000 a month.
A month, yeah, it's prettystandard.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Now what?
Yeah, some people have a carpayments over $1,500 a month.
You were saying now on theselong-term payments, it's so
crazy.
Yeah, it's like you know housepayment.
So, or what a house paymentused to be.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, I think that's why this episode is relatable,
because everybody has some sortof moment in their life and
maybe they've overcome it but um, where financial stress was a
big part or defining, even if itwas, you know like.
Personally, I've had, um, youknow, big vet bills that I
wasn't prepared for.
That prompted me to get petinsurance, which was a really
(12:05):
good financial move.
And just preparing, you know,some of it is inexperience and
others is just really gettinggood with your finances and
making a budget.
So hopefully, with theresources, you can learn to be
more confident and take some ofthat stress out, because the
budget should really guide youand not stress you out.
I think.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, absolutely, and I like how Nick talks about you
have to put things into thebudget that will help you stick
to a budget.
So, for instance, if you knowthat you like shopping for
clothes, create a budget for it.
Put $100 in your monthly budgetthat allows you some
flexibility so that you can goshopping for something that's
(12:47):
going to give you joy, becauseif you make it miserable, it's
going to be hard to stick to abudget.
So, yeah, I think these thingsall definitely we can all relate
and everybody's had theirfinancial challenges.
But it's really coming back tothose daily habits and, you know
, figuring out what's going towork.
Everybody's different.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Me personally, holding to a hundred dollar
shopping clothing budget wouldbe a difficult challenge, but,
you know, I think having acommunity of people to help you,
like my friends, willdefinitely be able to help me do
that.
I could say, hey, you know, wecan window shop, but I'm not
(13:25):
going to take my credit card ormy card inside of there.
I think that, um, you know,challenges are so, so helpful
for us all and I think that'spart of the reason why I also
like Buena Vida, and you kind ofbrought up the assessment
earlier.
So I went ahead and took it andI was shocked and disappointed
because I thought I was going toscore higher, but I did get
(13:46):
some Buena Vida bucks.
So I'm okay with that.
But it did connect me with somethings for the community to
help me in the elements that Ivery much need help in.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I'm so happy you said that, dani, because,
yeah, just signing up for theirprogram isn't going to get you
that 25 Buena Vida bucks, butyou have to go in and do that
health assessment.
It should take about 10 minutesand it really does help guide
your experience in the app.
So it's yeah, it's a reallygreat entry point and if you
haven't been in the app or onthe, you can use the web-based
(14:16):
platform on your computer aswell.
It's going to prompt you to dothat until you do it as well
it's going to prompt you to dothat until you do it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And, Lacey, you have a particular insight into how
finances impact people's, youknow life more broadly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Can you tell us a little more about what you know
about that?
Yeah, so my formal educationalbackground is in exercise
physiology, and so I spent a lotof time kind of learning just
about human physiology, how thebody works, and what we know is
everything's connected, right,and so the brain is connected to
the body, and how you thinkimpacts your hormones, and every
emotion you experience willcreate a shift in your heart,
(14:54):
your digestive system and so on.
And I think about, like goingback to Psychology 101, the
Maslow's hierarchy of needsright, we all had that class
probably at some point or you'veseen that hierarchy and
security is really at the bottomof the pyramid.
And when we are financiallystressed, right.
(15:16):
So if you're experiencing somesort of financial burden or
major issue or having a hardtime kind of making ends meet,
that's going to impact beingable to put food on the table,
it could impact your shelter,your ability to buy your
children clothing for school,which is going to impact their
experience, and so all of thosethings that stress that we can
(15:36):
experience from the financialside can increase our blood
pressure, it can increase ourheart rate, it can affect how
well we're sleeping, and all ofthese things contribute to these
chronic conditions that we'reseeing so prevalent in our
society.
Also, when we don't have abudget in place, we're more
likely to like just swingthrough and buy fast food from a
(15:59):
, from a window right, andbecause it's easy and it's cheap
and that's going to impact ourhealth.
But having that food budget andreally kind of thinking about
how am I going to live my lifeweek by week, meal prepping and
things like that can make a hugedifference.
So to me it's allinterconnected and the financial
piece is really kind of downthere at the base of the pyramid
(16:20):
.
If we don't have that in order,it's going to be really hard to
go out and live a good, solid,healthy life for our families.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I fully agree.
I think that right now is anexcellent time for us to maybe
challenge ourselves and otherswith the start of the new state
fiscal year to really develop anew budget.
There are lots of new thingscoming at us new schedules, new
(16:51):
elements inside of our careersthat it might be a good
challenge for us internallywithin ERS and then also, you
know, our subscribers to createa new budget, and I think that
we'll be able to really helpthem out in this edition too.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, I love that.
I think creating the budget isthe first step.
Really, even before creating abudget is figuring out.
Over the past month, how did Ispend my money, like where's it
going, if you don't have abudget already?
For me and my husband, when westarted budgeting, I realized
that we were spending way toomuch money on restaurants, like
(17:24):
just way too much money, becauseI love to eat out, like I love
to not have to do the dishes.
But that was a wake up call andif I'm just you know spending,
have no idea then.
Yeah, so the awareness.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
And I like how you said you know if you're spending
, put it in your budget, right,because I think that was my
thing for a long time.
I was like, well, I just won'tbuy a new outfit this month, you
know I'm going to and I won'tput in my budget.
But what did I do?
I went and bought a new outfitanyway and so it's just like
budget for it.
Put it in there.
And, to your point, theawareness is probably one of the
key factors.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And then you feel guilty because you bought the
new outfit and you can't enjoyit.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
So yeah, it's a cycle a whole lot on convenience
(18:24):
spending.
Like I'm driving and mycommute's kind of long, I'll
drive and grab my food and havethat convenience eating while
I'm driving.
Of course it's one handed, Iquickly shove it down my throat
Right.
But then I come into the office, I'm working and I buy some
food here too, and I have to.
To admit, my my budget's ripped.
So I challenged myself and Ilaugh all you want, laugh all
(18:48):
you want.
But I challenged myself oneweek and I saved 60 dollars, not
doing that convenient spendingjust for lunch.
Just for lunch.
I'm still doing my breakfastand dinner.
But yeah, yes, yes, I enjoyfood and I'm going to make sure
that I'm going to eat somethinghealthy, and sometimes healthy
foods are a little bit expensive, right, they're worth it.
(19:12):
They are worth it.
But you know what else is worthit Making those healthy foods
at the house where I know that Ican spend my money in places
that maybe it's best suited forme in the long term places that
maybe it's best suited for me inthe long term.
And something that reallycreates a routine for me because
I think that's one thing that'sreally helpful is having that
routine to avoid having to comeback to my budget weekly or
(19:34):
month by month to try to adjustand maneuver in a safe way for
my mental health and my financesright.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, that's great, I mean, and it is really.
I think the thing is as well.
You can make adjustments monthby month.
You aren't stuck Like if yourealize, oh I need, I'm going to
need a little more money inthis area because that's not
working for me.
We've got to figure out how tomake adjustments, but we only
make what we make.
You know, unless you want topick up an extra job and, you
(20:04):
know, drive Uber or somethinglike that, there's always side
gigs that can help.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
But even then, you're spending money on gas, right?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You're going to be adding to that wear and tear and
it's pretty stressful to add asecond or third job and not have
that time as downtime.
And hopefully, if you get yourbudget in order, I think you can
, kind of you don't have tomonitor it all the time forever.
Once you get good with it, Ithink it can.
It takes some practice buthopefully a good budget can keep
(20:34):
you from having to keep youreye on it like every single
purchase.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Absolutely so.
Whenever I took my healthassessment through Buena Vida, I
got a score for some of thethings that are impacting my
life, and one of them was stress.
So it did push me informationfor stress, and one of them was
the Learn to Live applicationand just other community
(20:58):
elements for it.
Right, yeah, learn to.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Live.
You know, for anybody who'smanaging our health plan
participants.
It's digital and I've beengoing through the resiliency
course, so I think this is agood one.
Even if you aren't managing acondition, or maybe you don't
have full-blown anxiety ordepression or substance use
(21:21):
issues, we can all learn someskills to be more resilient so
that when stuff does happen, asit inevitably will in our lives,
we're all going to deal withstress.
Then we got some tools and someresources to really be able to
address that.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
So, going back to one of the stats you mentioned
earlier, lacey, we said that 40%of the respondents that took
the health risk assessmentwithin the Buena Vida app stated
that financial stress wasimpacting their health, job or
relationships.
And so we talk a lot about,like sure, establish a budget
and all these kinds of things,but the app can help with maybe,
(21:58):
like you said, meeting peoplewhere they are right.
Maybe you just got to get thestress under control before you
can even think about a budget orwhat's next with my budget.
So maybe we talk a little bitabout the resources that are
available.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, and I think that's such a great point.
40% of people are trying tomanage financial stress, but
maybe the thing that you need isto talk to a therapist, right?
Maybe you need to really seekprofessional help, because maybe
there's some underlying stuffthere that is affecting you and
(22:31):
that is so overwhelming that youknow you got to figure that out
before you can deal with thisbudget.
And so we have a couple ofprograms you know, like MD Live
and Doctor on Demand.
We have virtual mental healthvisits at no cost to plan
participants.
A lot of people don't know thatwe have a huge network of mental
health support that you can seesomeone in person for a
(22:51):
traditional co-pay as well,which you know.
I think there's a lot, just alot of resources out there.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And the doctor on demand and MD live are at.
No, they don't have a co-pay,no co-pay.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
If you're using the app.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
And you think about how expensive mental health can
be, you know, when you don'thave employer insurance.
But the access to that you knowonline is amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I just got off the phone with a very close friend
of mine that works for the statethat is seeing a therapist
online and it has been a gamechanger for her.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, I mean just talking through what's going on
in your head, right, and wethink about To be able to
verbalize it, right.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah.
With an objective person that'sgoing to look at it in a
different way.
And I know so many people thatyou know they just go out to
their car and they're on theirtherapy visit and you know they
just do that and come back andit's at no cost and it's really
cool thing.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So yeah, and you can get to that through Buena Vida,
to your point, you can get rightto those resources.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
That's me.
You know.
I'm just a go go go person andI think that, like, it's
definitely a mental thing.
So for me, I see my therapistand I am actually pretty
stressed about my finances,right.
So I have a decent salary, Ihave an excellent credit score,
low debt, but it's really justthe mindset that I grew up with
that makes me so concerned aboutmy finances.
(24:14):
You know, like, growing up wedidn't, we did a month to month
kind of thing, and it'sconcerning, right, so, having
that individual be able to likehelp me plan things out.
Even even though I have mybudget, I stick to it and it's
not like I don't plan that $60lunch in there.
It's, it's associated with food, but maybe I'm spending
excessively on food, right, butI think that it's definitely
(24:40):
something that's reallyimportant to me and I wish more
individuals did.
I see my therapist weekly.
If I'm having to be in theoffice, I'll go take my lunch
hour and I'll go talk to mytherapist in my car.
So maybe Angelica is talkingabout me whenever she's talking
about people.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I know so many people that do that.
I used to do it too.
But yeah, I know I tell a lotof people like, hey, let's go
have lunch.
And they're like, oh right,after my therapy session I'm
like cool, we'll work that intoo.
So I think it's I mean, it's acool thing to have access'm
looking at these stats.
I love these stats.
I think I've told you thatbefore.
They just are so telling.
(25:12):
And the other thing that a lotof people are interested in is
you know financial planningresources and you know
retirement planning, and I thinka lot of these respondents are
probably more tenured in theirstate career.
But I talk to a lot of peoplewhen I travel to that you know
they're younger and they'rethinking about financial
(25:33):
planning now and retirementplanning, and I think that
that's.
You know.
One of the things that we tryto push all the time I think
Danny mentioned it earlier isthe availability of the Texas
Saver RPAs and whether you'recontributing or not.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople don't even know they're
contributing, you'recontributing or not, you know, I
think a lot of people don'teven know they're contributing
and it just you know it's so.
(25:54):
It's so, um, it's kind of a coolthing, Cause it's like, oh,
I've been putting this moneyaside and you're like, wow, I
didn't even know that was there.
But you know, knowledge ispower.
And so just talking to someone,um, about what your situation
is and what your long-term goalsare, Um, I mean, that's a
resource that we have availableat no cost, Right, and I think
we probably have a card forTexas Saver.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We do.
Yeah, you can get right toTexas Saver from the Buena Vida
portal as well we have links toand the Texas Saver the website
has come so far.
I mean it's really.
They've got some phenomenaltools on that website so you can
project for the future andreally have your stuff in order.
And I mean there's greateducation there.
(26:35):
You don't even have to talk tosomebody.
But if you wanted to, they'dmake those counselors available
at no cost.
Like you said, they have abudgeting tool too.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
When you're logged into your account and see your
dashboard, you can do savingsplanner.
You can bring in your wholefinancial picture and do
budgeting, rainy day fund and Ithink we see that in some of the
survey respondents that peoplewant help.
They don't really know how toplan for an emergency fund or
you know how much that should beand when they should use it.
(27:04):
Even though Danny has writtenan article for money matters, if
anybody wants to go back andlook at that, oh, all of these
things are going to be in theshow notes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
It's going to be a long list of show notes, All the
plugs oh yes, yes, I love ityeah.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
All of these programs we're talking about can be
found in the Buena Vida app.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And some of them are triggered by the way everyone
will see all the time.
And then there are things thatonly if you have a condition.
But the other really greatthing about this program is that
if you go in and you say I havediabetes, we can reach out to
you through email, through theprogram, and say here's all the
(27:45):
resources that we have tosupport you and we have wonder
health, we have real appeal Weal, we have Omada for Diabetes.
Maybe there's some more that I'mleaving out but there's all
these programs that we haveavailable so we can also email
that to you directly and sothat's just another way that we
can get those resources to ourplan participants.
And again, I mean we have tosay this stuff so many times
(28:07):
sometimes because, like Danisaid, I might not be ready to
change my life right now, like Imight have too much going on to
focus on changing my nutritionbecause I'm taking care of a
sick parent right Like there aretimes in our life where we just
need to get by like, just liveevery day.
Yeah, and then when we're ready,it's there.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
I like the idea that you know the whole holistic
wellness aspect of Buena Vida isso amazing, and I think August
is sort of the month where wetalk a lot about financial
wellness and you have somecontent that you put out this
month in addition to yourpodcast.
Do you want to tell us a littlebit about that?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Sure, so we had a webinar I talked a little bit
about earlier with Nick Daughtryand we had, I think, over 500
people attended that webinarlive.
I have it recorded and we canalso put a link to that webinar
in the show notes.
It was very well received,really great content.
He's always reallyinspirational.
And then on the 28th of Augustwe are going to be doing a
(29:08):
webinar on healthy eating on abudget which I'm overwhelmed
with the response we're gettingon this.
We have over 1000 peopleregistered for that webinar, so
that tells me that's somethingthat people really want help
with is how to eat well on abudget.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It can be expensive.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Oh so, yeah, it's so expensive.
And so Holly Cuso, who is ourdedicated sorry, who is our
dedicated program manager atWebMD, she's going to be coming
in and delivering that content,and so we're excited to push
that out as well.
And then I have been promotingwhat y'all do.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
So cool.
And all of that is prerecordedtoo, right, lacey?
So they can find that.
Hopefully, like you said, we'llput in the show notes, but also
online, absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, Great.
Also in the Buena Vida app,when you complete your
incentives and get your BuenaVida bucks, there is a whole
little store there to spend yourBuena Vida bucks.
Yeah, there are many, many coolitems, but specifically on
topic to this episode, some ofthe items include a subscription
(30:13):
to Good Budget, a budgeting app.
Also the Calm app, theHeadspace app and a book called
the Psychology of Money and someother things specifically to
reducing anxiety and financialstress.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Oh, that's cool.
I didn't realize we had booksand stuff on there and it was
pretty easy to get those BuenaVida books.
It's so easy.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, we've made it so easy this year.
We wanted to make it supersimple Three actions.
You can earn your full 100Buena Vida bucks, which is $99
in value that you can spend in astore.
And, if anyone's wondering, wehave to stay under $100.
That's why it's capped at $99,because of tax implications,
(30:56):
because we're not the employer.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
We don't want to tax anyone.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
We don't want to tax anybody and we don't have to
send out tax forms to everyone.
That creates a whole otherlayer of challenge.
But we have $99 that we canwork with, and this year is $25
or 25 points for doing thehealth risk assessment.
We keep talking about 25 fordownloading the app I mean
that's the easiest $25 you'llever make and then $50 for doing
(31:23):
your annual preventive exam,because we're really trying to
get folks to engage withpreventive health care, and
that's a really great first step.
If you have a PCP, which mostpeople in our health plan do,
you can go see your PCP.
It costs you nothing to do thatvisit.
You'll get your blood work.
If you don't go to your PCPregularly, you can do this
virtually from home through acatapult kit.
(31:45):
All of that is available in theapp, all that information.
So, yeah, next year we're goingto change this a little bit
though, so just keep an eye out.
You want to earn your pointsthis year and spend them.
When do they have?
Until?
We are encouraging people toget their annual exam before
November 15th, because it cantake four to six weeks for that
claim to process.
(32:05):
You don't have to do anythingeither.
The claim will go through BlueCross be sent to WebMD, you
don't have to do anything either.
The claim will go through.
Blue Cross be sent to WebMD.
So you don't have to doanything to get your $50.
It should just pop up in yourapp and then you can spend it.
But before November 15th you'llbe safe.
If you do it.
(32:26):
After that you may not get thepoints and time to spend them,
because they have to be spentbefore the end of this tax year,
december 31st, real quickly seelike, in addition to the things
that Suzanne just mentioned.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I mean there's Nike hats on here, there's the viral
Stanley cups that everyone goescrazy for, there's Yetis,
there's Oakley sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Wow, yeah, it's all mostly health related things.
It was interesting too.
We went back to Well on Targetthe program that we had before
through Blue Cross and looked atwhat people were spending their
.
It was blue points before.
What are people spending theirblue points on?
And I don't know if anyone elsefinds this interesting, but the
number one item people redeempoints for was the Gun and
(33:05):
Garden magazine, so we addedthat to our store.
Interesting Because TexasBecause Texas?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Because Texas.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I love it so much I was going to guess the
toothbrushes.
You know, I have to admit endof the year.
Right, it's the end of the year.
So, in the event that you maybeare budgeting, maybe you want
to get somebody a gift, ahealthy gift with your.
Buena Vida bucks, there aretoothbrushes and, of course, the
viral Stanley Cup that Angelicamentioned.
(33:31):
So, lacey, you're talking aboutthe future of Buena Vida.
Can you tell us what's in storefor the upcoming year?
Yes, so.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I'm super excited to announce our upcoming challenge.
It's called Trek Through Texas.
This is a state park-themedchallenge that we've been
working collaboratively withTexas Parks and Wildlife, WebMD
and ERS together and it's asix-week challenge and the goal
is to get 50,000 steps in a week, which is about 7,000 steps a
day.
7,000 is what we know is reallyhelpful for heart health.
(34:05):
10,000 has kind of beendebunked.
I don't know if you all knewthat, but 10,000 is it's kind of
been debunked.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I don't know if y'all knew that, but 10,000 is no
longer Interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, I mean 10,000 is great, but 7,000 is really
where we see the most benefit.
After that it's not quite asmuch benefit.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
But if you want to do 10,000.
Well, that's good news.
Yeah, it's good news.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So, that's our goal is to get 50,000 steps a week,
and then you get entered into adrawing for a state parks pass
donated by Texas Parks andWildlife, and so that's, that's
our big challenge.
That starts on September 15.
And registration will open onSeptember 1.
And I also just want to share Iguess this is a good time to
share what's happening in thenext year.
(34:43):
Personally, I am actuallyleaving my role here at ERS, and
so this is a little bittersweetto announce, but I think this
is a good forum to kind of pushthat out, because, yeah, I just
want to make sure everybodyknows we'll miss you, we will
miss
Speaker 3 (34:59):
you.
You'll be so missed.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, well, I'm gonna miss you all.
It certainly is, like I said,bittersweet is the emotion for
leaving this amazing place.
I have really loved, loved theopportunities that I've had here
and I absolutely love thepeople that I've had the
opportunity to work with andsupport across the state.
But I'm excited for the nextadventure.
(35:20):
I'm vested, you know I've beenwith the state close to 12 years
and so I'm just going to leavemy money here and smart move,
yeah, and maybe come back andfinish out with state government
and get a yeah, lots of peopledo that.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yeah, it's a good move.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
So you did your research and you spoke to the
most knowledgeable individualsthat you're aware of with an ers
to make sure that you're makingthe best decision for your
finances moving forward.
Of course, you're aware of whatyou're doing with your upcoming
role, but you wanted to be surethat you're aware of what
you're doing with your upcomingrole, but you wanted to be sure
that you were aware of whatyou're doing with your pension
and your 401k 457, everythingyou're doing with Texas Saver
(35:57):
prior to leaving, so that that'sreally amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And the program will continue.
We'll rehire for the role andpeople will still get an.
Evita and the.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
You know she set it up for success before she,
before she leaves us, and I knowyou know you've done amazing
work with that, lacey, socongratulations and a lot of
connections throughout the statewith our benefits coordinators
and those at the variousagencies we serve.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So thank you so much.
You did the great thing theNational Park things.
You left it better than youvisited it.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Oh, thank you, I love that.
I love that.
I guess the state parks.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, state parks, any parks, right?
Yes, nature, you're leaving usbetter than when you saw us and
you visited.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Thank you, Well, thanks for joining us, Lacey.
We really appreciate it Foreveryone listening.
Go download the Buena Vida app.
You'll have access to a ton ofresources, lots of things that
you didn't know existed in termsof offerings for your health
plan and well-being initiatives.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Thanks, lacey, again for being on today's episode.
We're going to miss you, butyou've left us with lots of
wonderful resources and, asalways, with our listeners, we
love to get your feedback on anyof the things we've been
discussing or what you'd like tohear in future episodes.
So please send us your ideas atstory underscore, ideas at
erstexasgov, because we'd loveto hear your thoughts On Money
(37:21):
Talks.
This material is forinformational purposes only and
is not intended to provideinvestment, legal or tax
recommendations or advice.
Hi everyone and welcome to this special episode
of the Buena Vida podcast.
I'm your host, lacey Wolf.
This episode today is going tobe a little bit different
because it is my last as yourhost.
My final day at ERS will beSeptember 5th, so I wanted to
leave you with something alittle bit different.
Today, instead of meinterviewing a guest, I'm
sharing an episode of our sisterpodcast here at ERS Money Talks
(00:23):
.
In this episode, I sat downwith Angelica, dani and Suzanne
from our communications divisionto talk about managing
financial stress and our brandnew Buena Vida program.
This was a fun conversation andI got to sit on the other side
of the table this time as aninterviewee.
I encourage you to subscribe tothe Money Talks podcast, our
(00:43):
dedicated financial wellnesspodcast, because it's full of
helpful insights and greatconversations.
And I also want to say don'tworry, because the Plenipedia
podcast isn't going anywhere.
We'll be back when myreplacement is hired and gets
settled in.
Before we dive into the episode,I want to take a moment just to
say thank you.
Serving in this role at ERS andgetting to host this podcast
(01:05):
has been one of the greatestprivileges of my career.
Since April 20th of 2021, Ihave recorded, edited and
published 81 episodes andtogether we've had more than
28,000 downloads.
Along the way, I've learned somuch from our guests and, more
importantly, from you, ourlisteners.
I also want to thank ourleadership at ERS for believing
(01:27):
in me and taking a chance onthis project.
They allowed us to explore aninnovative communication style
in state government, which isn'talways the norm, and I'm so
proud of the space that we'vecreated.
From the launch of ERS Walk Talkduring COVID to where we are
today.
It's been an incredible journey.
I have loved hearing yourstories, your feedback and your
engagement.
(01:47):
It has really meant the worldto me.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank
you.
Now, please enjoy this episodeof Money Talks.
Here we go.
What we know is everything'sconnected right.
That stress that we canexperience from the financial
side can increase our bloodpressure.
(02:08):
It can increase our heart rate.
It can affect how well we'resleeping.
If we don't have that in order,it's going to be really hard to
go out and live a good, solid,healthy life.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
ERS's own well-being expert, lacey Wolfe, joins
today's episode of Money Talksto share what she sees as
trending among member attitudestowards their finances, their
financial stressors and helpfulERS resources.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Hi everyone, Welcome to Money Talks.
This is Dani Lovefree.
I'm an editor here on MoneyMatters, the newsletter that
distributes Money Talks.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm Suzanne Krauss, also one of the editors of Money
Matters and Money Talks.
I'm Angelica Rivera.
We're really happy to welcomeLacey Wolfe to our podcast.
She's the ERS coordinator ofstatewide well-being initiatives
and in this role she's helpedshare many resources about
well-being with our members, andthat includes financial
well-being.
Welcome, Lacey, Thank you.
We wanted to have Lacey on totalk about the trend she's
(03:02):
seeing and member attitudes totheir finances, what their
stressors are, and share some ofthe resources ERS has to help
members with their financialwell-being.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Thanks so much for having me.
It's really an honor to be hereand to share some of the things
that we're learning through thewellness side of things here at
ERS.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Thanks, lacey.
I want to also mention that youknow Lacey is such an advocate.
She hosts an award-winningpodcast, currently Buena Vida
podcast, formerly known as theERS Walk and Talk podcast.
Many of you may have heard itand we also encourage you to
listen to it because it sharesanother side of this holistic
(03:40):
wellness initiative that we'redoing here at ERS, holistic
wellness initiative that we'redoing here at ERAS.
Most recently, lacey led aninitiative for the Buena Vida
Wellbeing Platform.
Lacey, some people may not beaware of what Buena Vida is.
Can you give us a briefoverview of Buena Vida?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I would love to.
It's one of my favorite thingsto talk about.
So, first of all, I will justsay that we took a lot of time
and put a lot into the branding.
So Buena Vida means the goodlife, and we really wanted to
have a program that would helppeople find their good life,
whatever that is and we knowthat a good life is different
(04:18):
for every one of us, dependingon what we want from our lives,
our situation, our family, wherewe live all of these factors
play a big role, and so BuenaVida is not just a platform or
an app, it's a program, and itreally is all inclusive for all
the things that come, you know,we think of with health and
(04:39):
well-being.
But the platform specificallyI'll talk a little bit about and
share some of the benefits andthe resources that people might
want to know about is throughWebMD.
So WebMD has the contractcurrently to supply this
platform.
We have a mobile applicationand through that you can start
(05:00):
out, you can create a profile,just like I think about it as
social media for wellness, right, so you can go in and create a
profile.
Just like I think about it associal media for wellness, right
, so you can go in and createyour profile and then you can
take a health assessment online,take about 10 minutes and just
through that right away you get$25 this year it's going to
change next year but you earnmoney that you can spend in a
(05:20):
store and that will help tocustomize you in the platform
kind of living your good life,finding the things that are
going to support you most, basedoff of how you answer those
questions.
It has actions that people cantake.
We at ERS really wanted to beable to incentivize things that
we think are important, likedoing your annual preventive
exam, so you can do things likethat and earn money for doing
(05:42):
that.
And we have challenges,community groups to support each
other and a lot of otherresources that can help drive
people toward healthy behaviors.
And every quarter I work withBlue Cross, our administrator of
our health plan, and ourinternal team and agencies to
have campaigns to supportwell-being.
(06:04):
So we have quarterly kind ofcampaigns and then we have
monthly themes within thosecampaigns.
So, for instance, this Augustwe are in the mental health
quarter, but we're focusing onthe financial aspect of mental
health because we know thatfinances can deeply impact our
mental health and our well-being.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
One of the things I really like about the app Lacey
is it gives you all of yourwellness things, access to Hello
Heart, Learn to Live, all thethings that maybe folks don't
know that are offered throughthe health plan in one spot, and
so, rather than having to goout to the website and look all
these different places fordifferent things, you just go to
(06:43):
your app and then you haveaccess to all that information
in one spot.
So that's one of the things Ireally enjoy about it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, that's exactly what we were wanting to build
out was kind of a one-stop shopfor all the things.
So you may say, you know, like,for instance, if I had a
musculoskeletal issue, a reportthat I'm dealing with, chronic
pain, I should see in my takeaction section Hinge Health pop
up there right.
Or if I have a heart conditionor hypertension, I should see
(07:11):
Hello Heart, our heart healthprogram, pop up as a resource.
So, yeah, thank you formentioning that.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, and I think you know it ties directly into
financial wellness, in thatthese are things maybe you
wouldn't know are available toyou at no cost, and so you know,
just having access to that andthose resources, I think not
only is obviously part of yourphysical health, but can
directly impact your financialwellness as well too.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
For sure, and if you think about managing a chronic
condition is stressful and it'scostly, and a lot of people are
trying to do a lot of things ontheir own, may not realize that
we have these amazing benefitsout there.
And sometimes I don't know.
I've seen research of marketing.
You need to see something seventimes before it really
resonates with you, and so it'skind of like we're just beating
(08:00):
that drum through all thedifferent ways that we
communicate and this is, I thinkit's just another great way to
get information out to ourpopulation that may help support
folks.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And Lacey, you had mentioned that people have the
health assessment and one of thecomponents is to answer some
questions about their financialwell-being.
Can you tell us a little moreabout the stats you're seeing in
that?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yes, that's one of the great things about this app
for us at ERS is that when youtake that health assessment, we
can run reports on an aggregatelevel.
I can't look at what anybodysays individually, but we can
see kind of the trends in ourpopulation and we can figure out
how do we need to focus ourefforts to support people more
effectively.
So, for instance, 40% ofrespondents said that financial
(08:44):
stress is affecting their health, their job or their
relationships, and we have.
I think over 12,000 people havetaken that health assessment at
this point, and so that's astat that means something to us.
And again, thinking about allthat y'all are doing by putting
together this great financialpodcast and the newsletter to
(09:05):
support that's how we'reresponding.
You know we're using this dataand actually being able to put
some stuff out there to supportfolks.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, we had some feedback that said you know what
from from a question whatbenefits or tools do you feel
would help you reduce financialstress?
In 24.6 said retirementplanning, so of course we're
always talking about Texas Saver, the 401k 457 program, and then
investment planning was 22.2%,and then help managing cash and
(09:33):
debt issues happen to be an18.2%.
So we're constantly looking athow to budget.
Circling back to somecommunications, even even you
know you mentioned the bringsomething up seven times.
You started with the CarrieCarver, now Carrie.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Winkley story and we pulled that and we're constantly
pushing that informationAbsolutely.
And the Carrie story is sopowerful I hope we can link to
that again in the show notes ofthis episode.
But Carrie's story wasinspirational because she was
able to pay off $40,000.
Was it $40,000?
I think in debt in a prettyshort period of time as a single
mom and I think when we look atfinances a lot of times people
(10:15):
feel super overwhelmed.
Last week I had a really greatspeaker deliver a webinar on
this topic.
He said it's less about what wemake, more about what we do
with what we make and reallyforming those good financial
habits.
And it and that's that's whatwe're trying to do is help with
the education, because obviouslywe're not the employer here at
(10:36):
ERS but we do care deeply aboutpeople's financial health,
mental health, physical healthand especially as state
employees.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Right, that's what's so great about Carrie's story is
she's a state employee and shehas access to the same resources
and benefits that stateemployees have access to, so
it's always great to hear thesuccess stories from other state
employees.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Absolutely, and I think it was interesting just
last week hearing the story fromthe speaker.
His name is Nick Daughtry he.
He talked about just one of thebiggest things that we do in
America is we get into thesehuge car payments.
Right, like, yeah, he said 18percent of people in America was
18 percent of people in Americahave a car payment over a
(11:20):
thousand dollars and in Texasit's we are like the worst
because of our big trucks.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
And we love our cars, we love our cars.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
$1,000 a month.
A month, yeah, it's prettystandard.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Now what?
Yeah, some people have a carpayments over $1,500 a month.
You were saying now on theselong-term payments, it's so
crazy.
Yeah, it's like you know housepayment.
So, or what a house paymentused to be.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, I think that's why this episode is relatable,
because everybody has some sortof moment in their life and
maybe they've overcome it but um, where financial stress was a
big part or defining, even if itwas, you know like.
Personally, I've had, um, youknow, big vet bills that I
wasn't prepared for.
That prompted me to get petinsurance, which was a really
(12:05):
good financial move.
And just preparing, you know,some of it is inexperience and
others is just really gettinggood with your finances and
making a budget.
So hopefully, with theresources, you can learn to be
more confident and take some ofthat stress out, because the
budget should really guide youand not stress you out.
I think.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, absolutely, and I like how Nick talks about you
have to put things into thebudget that will help you stick
to a budget.
So, for instance, if you knowthat you like shopping for
clothes, create a budget for it.
Put $100 in your monthly budgetthat allows you some
flexibility so that you can goshopping for something that's
(12:47):
going to give you joy, becauseif you make it miserable, it's
going to be hard to stick to abudget.
So, yeah, I think these thingsall definitely we can all relate
and everybody's had theirfinancial challenges.
But it's really coming back tothose daily habits and, you know
, figuring out what's going towork.
Everybody's different.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Me personally, holding to a hundred dollar
shopping clothing budget wouldbe a difficult challenge, but,
you know, I think having acommunity of people to help you,
like my friends, willdefinitely be able to help me do
that.
I could say, hey, you know, wecan window shop, but I'm not
(13:25):
going to take my credit card ormy card inside of there.
I think that, um, you know,challenges are so, so helpful
for us all and I think that'spart of the reason why I also
like Buena Vida, and you kind ofbrought up the assessment
earlier.
So I went ahead and took it andI was shocked and disappointed
because I thought I was going toscore higher, but I did get
(13:46):
some Buena Vida bucks.
So I'm okay with that.
But it did connect me with somethings for the community to
help me in the elements that Ivery much need help in.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I'm so happy you said that, dani, because,
yeah, just signing up for theirprogram isn't going to get you
that 25 Buena Vida bucks, butyou have to go in and do that
health assessment.
It should take about 10 minutesand it really does help guide
your experience in the app.
So it's yeah, it's a reallygreat entry point and if you
haven't been in the app or onthe, you can use the web-based
(14:16):
platform on your computer aswell.
It's going to prompt you to dothat until you do it as well
it's going to prompt you to dothat until you do it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And, Lacey, you have a particular insight into how
finances impact people's, youknow life more broadly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Can you tell us a little more about what you know
about that?
Yeah, so my formal educationalbackground is in exercise
physiology, and so I spent a lotof time kind of learning just
about human physiology, how thebody works, and what we know is
everything's connected, right,and so the brain is connected to
the body, and how you thinkimpacts your hormones, and every
emotion you experience willcreate a shift in your heart,
(14:54):
your digestive system and so on.
And I think about, like goingback to Psychology 101, the
Maslow's hierarchy of needsright, we all had that class
probably at some point or you'veseen that hierarchy and
security is really at the bottomof the pyramid.
And when we are financiallystressed, right.
(15:16):
So if you're experiencing somesort of financial burden or
major issue or having a hardtime kind of making ends meet,
that's going to impact beingable to put food on the table,
it could impact your shelter,your ability to buy your
children clothing for school,which is going to impact their
experience, and so all of thosethings that stress that we can
(15:36):
experience from the financialside can increase our blood
pressure, it can increase ourheart rate, it can affect how
well we're sleeping, and all ofthese things contribute to these
chronic conditions that we'reseeing so prevalent in our
society.
Also, when we don't have abudget in place, we're more
likely to like just swingthrough and buy fast food from a
(15:59):
, from a window right, andbecause it's easy and it's cheap
and that's going to impact ourhealth.
But having that food budget andreally kind of thinking about
how am I going to live my lifeweek by week, meal prepping and
things like that can make a hugedifference.
So to me it's allinterconnected and the financial
piece is really kind of downthere at the base of the pyramid
(16:20):
.
If we don't have that in order,it's going to be really hard to
go out and live a good, solid,healthy life for our families.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I fully agree.
I think that right now is anexcellent time for us to maybe
challenge ourselves and otherswith the start of the new state
fiscal year to really develop anew budget.
There are lots of new thingscoming at us new schedules, new
(16:51):
elements inside of our careersthat it might be a good
challenge for us internallywithin ERS and then also, you
know, our subscribers to createa new budget, and I think that
we'll be able to really helpthem out in this edition too.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, I love that.
I think creating the budget isthe first step.
Really, even before creating abudget is figuring out.
Over the past month, how did Ispend my money, like where's it
going, if you don't have abudget already?
For me and my husband, when westarted budgeting, I realized
that we were spending way toomuch money on restaurants, like
(17:24):
just way too much money, becauseI love to eat out, like I love
to not have to do the dishes.
But that was a wake up call andif I'm just you know spending,
have no idea then.
Yeah, so the awareness.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
And I like how you said you know if you're spending
, put it in your budget, right,because I think that was my
thing for a long time.
I was like, well, I just won'tbuy a new outfit this month, you
know I'm going to and I won'tput in my budget.
But what did I do?
I went and bought a new outfitanyway and so it's just like
budget for it.
Put it in there.
And, to your point, theawareness is probably one of the
key factors.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And then you feel guilty because you bought the
new outfit and you can't enjoyit.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
So yeah, it's a cycle a whole lot on convenience
(18:24):
spending.
Like I'm driving and mycommute's kind of long, I'll
drive and grab my food and havethat convenience eating while
I'm driving.
Of course it's one handed, Iquickly shove it down my throat
Right.
But then I come into the office, I'm working and I buy some
food here too, and I have to.
To admit, my my budget's ripped.
So I challenged myself and Ilaugh all you want, laugh all
(18:48):
you want.
But I challenged myself oneweek and I saved 60 dollars, not
doing that convenient spendingjust for lunch.
Just for lunch.
I'm still doing my breakfastand dinner.
But yeah, yes, yes, I enjoyfood and I'm going to make sure
that I'm going to eat somethinghealthy, and sometimes healthy
foods are a little bit expensive, right, they're worth it.
(19:12):
They are worth it.
But you know what else is worthit Making those healthy foods
at the house where I know that Ican spend my money in places
that maybe it's best suited forme in the long term places that
maybe it's best suited for me inthe long term.
And something that reallycreates a routine for me because
I think that's one thing that'sreally helpful is having that
routine to avoid having to comeback to my budget weekly or
(19:34):
month by month to try to adjustand maneuver in a safe way for
my mental health and my financesright.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, that's great, I mean, and it is really.
I think the thing is as well.
You can make adjustments monthby month.
You aren't stuck Like if yourealize, oh I need, I'm going to
need a little more money inthis area because that's not
working for me.
We've got to figure out how tomake adjustments, but we only
make what we make.
You know, unless you want topick up an extra job and, you
(20:04):
know, drive Uber or somethinglike that, there's always side
gigs that can help.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
But even then, you're spending money on gas, right?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You're going to be adding to that wear and tear and
it's pretty stressful to add asecond or third job and not have
that time as downtime.
And hopefully, if you get yourbudget in order, I think you can
, kind of you don't have tomonitor it all the time forever.
Once you get good with it, Ithink it can.
It takes some practice buthopefully a good budget can keep
(20:34):
you from having to keep youreye on it like every single
purchase.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Absolutely so.
Whenever I took my healthassessment through Buena Vida, I
got a score for some of thethings that are impacting my
life, and one of them was stress.
So it did push me informationfor stress, and one of them was
the Learn to Live applicationand just other community
(20:58):
elements for it.
Right, yeah, learn to.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Live.
You know, for anybody who'smanaging our health plan
participants.
It's digital and I've beengoing through the resiliency
course, so I think this is agood one.
Even if you aren't managing acondition, or maybe you don't
have full-blown anxiety ordepression or substance use
(21:21):
issues, we can all learn someskills to be more resilient so
that when stuff does happen, asit inevitably will in our lives,
we're all going to deal withstress.
Then we got some tools and someresources to really be able to
address that.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
So, going back to one of the stats you mentioned
earlier, lacey, we said that 40%of the respondents that took
the health risk assessmentwithin the Buena Vida app stated
that financial stress wasimpacting their health, job or
relationships.
And so we talk a lot about,like sure, establish a budget
and all these kinds of things,but the app can help with maybe,
(21:58):
like you said, meeting peoplewhere they are right.
Maybe you just got to get thestress under control before you
can even think about a budget orwhat's next with my budget.
So maybe we talk a little bitabout the resources that are
available.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, and I think that's such a great point.
40% of people are trying tomanage financial stress, but
maybe the thing that you need isto talk to a therapist, right?
Maybe you need to really seekprofessional help, because maybe
there's some underlying stuffthere that is affecting you and
(22:31):
that is so overwhelming that youknow you got to figure that out
before you can deal with thisbudget.
And so we have a couple ofprograms you know, like MD Live
and Doctor on Demand.
We have virtual mental healthvisits at no cost to plan
participants.
A lot of people don't know thatwe have a huge network of mental
health support that you can seesomeone in person for a
(22:51):
traditional co-pay as well,which you know.
I think there's a lot, just alot of resources out there.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And the doctor on demand and MD live are at.
No, they don't have a co-pay,no co-pay.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
If you're using the app.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
And you think about how expensive mental health can
be, you know, when you don'thave employer insurance.
But the access to that you knowonline is amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I just got off the phone with a very close friend
of mine that works for the statethat is seeing a therapist
online and it has been a gamechanger for her.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, I mean just talking through what's going on
in your head, right, and wethink about To be able to
verbalize it, right.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah.
With an objective person that'sgoing to look at it in a
different way.
And I know so many people thatyou know they just go out to
their car and they're on theirtherapy visit and you know they
just do that and come back andit's at no cost and it's really
cool thing.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So yeah, and you can get to that through Buena Vida,
to your point, you can get rightto those resources.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
That's me.
You know.
I'm just a go go go person andI think that, like, it's
definitely a mental thing.
So for me, I see my therapistand I am actually pretty
stressed about my finances,right.
So I have a decent salary, Ihave an excellent credit score,
low debt, but it's really justthe mindset that I grew up with
that makes me so concerned aboutmy finances.
(24:14):
You know, like, growing up wedidn't, we did a month to month
kind of thing, and it'sconcerning, right, so, having
that individual be able to likehelp me plan things out.
Even even though I have mybudget, I stick to it and it's
not like I don't plan that $60lunch in there.
It's, it's associated with food, but maybe I'm spending
excessively on food, right, butI think that it's definitely
(24:40):
something that's reallyimportant to me and I wish more
individuals did.
I see my therapist weekly.
If I'm having to be in theoffice, I'll go take my lunch
hour and I'll go talk to mytherapist in my car.
So maybe Angelica is talkingabout me whenever she's talking
about people.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I know so many people that do that.
I used to do it too.
But yeah, I know I tell a lotof people like, hey, let's go
have lunch.
And they're like, oh right,after my therapy session I'm
like cool, we'll work that intoo.
So I think it's I mean, it's acool thing to have access'm
looking at these stats.
I love these stats.
I think I've told you thatbefore.
They just are so telling.
(25:12):
And the other thing that a lotof people are interested in is
you know financial planningresources and you know
retirement planning, and I thinka lot of these respondents are
probably more tenured in theirstate career.
But I talk to a lot of peoplewhen I travel to that you know
they're younger and they'rethinking about financial
(25:33):
planning now and retirementplanning, and I think that
that's.
You know.
One of the things that we tryto push all the time I think
Danny mentioned it earlier isthe availability of the Texas
Saver RPAs and whether you'recontributing or not.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople don't even know they're
contributing, you'recontributing or not, you know, I
think a lot of people don'teven know they're contributing
and it just you know it's so.
(25:54):
It's so, um, it's kind of a coolthing, Cause it's like, oh,
I've been putting this moneyaside and you're like, wow, I
didn't even know that was there.
But you know, knowledge ispower.
And so just talking to someone,um, about what your situation
is and what your long-term goalsare, Um, I mean, that's a
resource that we have availableat no cost, Right, and I think
we probably have a card forTexas Saver.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We do.
Yeah, you can get right toTexas Saver from the Buena Vida
portal as well we have links toand the Texas Saver the website
has come so far.
I mean it's really.
They've got some phenomenaltools on that website so you can
project for the future andreally have your stuff in order.
And I mean there's greateducation there.
(26:35):
You don't even have to talk tosomebody.
But if you wanted to, they'dmake those counselors available
at no cost.
Like you said, they have abudgeting tool too.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
When you're logged into your account and see your
dashboard, you can do savingsplanner.
You can bring in your wholefinancial picture and do
budgeting, rainy day fund and Ithink we see that in some of the
survey respondents that peoplewant help.
They don't really know how toplan for an emergency fund or
you know how much that should beand when they should use it.
(27:04):
Even though Danny has writtenan article for money matters, if
anybody wants to go back andlook at that, oh, all of these
things are going to be in theshow notes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
It's going to be a long list of show notes, All the
plugs oh yes, yes, I love ityeah.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
All of these programs we're talking about can be
found in the Buena Vida app.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And some of them are triggered by the way everyone
will see all the time.
And then there are things thatonly if you have a condition.
But the other really greatthing about this program is that
if you go in and you say I havediabetes, we can reach out to
you through email, through theprogram, and say here's all the
(27:45):
resources that we have tosupport you and we have wonder
health, we have real appeal Weal, we have Omada for Diabetes.
Maybe there's some more that I'mleaving out but there's all
these programs that we haveavailable so we can also email
that to you directly and sothat's just another way that we
can get those resources to ourplan participants.
And again, I mean we have tosay this stuff so many times
(28:07):
sometimes because, like Danisaid, I might not be ready to
change my life right now, like Imight have too much going on to
focus on changing my nutritionbecause I'm taking care of a
sick parent right Like there aretimes in our life where we just
need to get by like, just liveevery day.
Yeah, and then when we're ready,it's there.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
I like the idea that you know the whole holistic
wellness aspect of Buena Vida isso amazing, and I think August
is sort of the month where wetalk a lot about financial
wellness and you have somecontent that you put out this
month in addition to yourpodcast.
Do you want to tell us a littlebit about that?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Sure, so we had a webinar I talked a little bit
about earlier with Nick Daughtryand we had, I think, over 500
people attended that webinarlive.
I have it recorded and we canalso put a link to that webinar
in the show notes.
It was very well received,really great content.
He's always reallyinspirational.
And then on the 28th of Augustwe are going to be doing a
(29:08):
webinar on healthy eating on abudget which I'm overwhelmed
with the response we're gettingon this.
We have over 1000 peopleregistered for that webinar, so
that tells me that's somethingthat people really want help
with is how to eat well on abudget.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It can be expensive.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Oh so, yeah, it's so expensive.
And so Holly Cuso, who is ourdedicated sorry, who is our
dedicated program manager atWebMD, she's going to be coming
in and delivering that content,and so we're excited to push
that out as well.
And then I have been promotingwhat y'all do.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
So cool.
And all of that is prerecordedtoo, right, lacey?
So they can find that.
Hopefully, like you said, we'llput in the show notes, but also
online, absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, Great.
Also in the Buena Vida app,when you complete your
incentives and get your BuenaVida bucks, there is a whole
little store there to spend yourBuena Vida bucks.
Yeah, there are many, many coolitems, but specifically on
topic to this episode, some ofthe items include a subscription
(30:13):
to Good Budget, a budgeting app.
Also the Calm app, theHeadspace app and a book called
the Psychology of Money and someother things specifically to
reducing anxiety and financialstress.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Oh, that's cool.
I didn't realize we had booksand stuff on there and it was
pretty easy to get those BuenaVida books.
It's so easy.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, we've made it so easy this year.
We wanted to make it supersimple Three actions.
You can earn your full 100Buena Vida bucks, which is $99
in value that you can spend in astore.
And, if anyone's wondering, wehave to stay under $100.
That's why it's capped at $99,because of tax implications,
(30:56):
because we're not the employer.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
We don't want to tax anyone.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
We don't want to tax anybody and we don't have to
send out tax forms to everyone.
That creates a whole otherlayer of challenge.
But we have $99 that we canwork with, and this year is $25
or 25 points for doing thehealth risk assessment.
We keep talking about 25 fordownloading the app I mean
that's the easiest $25 you'llever make and then $50 for doing
(31:23):
your annual preventive exam,because we're really trying to
get folks to engage withpreventive health care, and
that's a really great first step.
If you have a PCP, which mostpeople in our health plan do,
you can go see your PCP.
It costs you nothing to do thatvisit.
You'll get your blood work.
If you don't go to your PCPregularly, you can do this
virtually from home through acatapult kit.
(31:45):
All of that is available in theapp, all that information.
So, yeah, next year we're goingto change this a little bit
though, so just keep an eye out.
You want to earn your pointsthis year and spend them.
When do they have?
Until?
We are encouraging people toget their annual exam before
November 15th, because it cantake four to six weeks for that
claim to process.
(32:05):
You don't have to do anythingeither.
The claim will go through BlueCross be sent to WebMD, you
don't have to do anything either.
The claim will go through.
Blue Cross be sent to WebMD.
So you don't have to doanything to get your $50.
It should just pop up in yourapp and then you can spend it.
But before November 15th you'llbe safe.
If you do it.
(32:26):
After that you may not get thepoints and time to spend them,
because they have to be spentbefore the end of this tax year,
december 31st, real quickly seelike, in addition to the things
that Suzanne just mentioned.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I mean there's Nike hats on here, there's the viral
Stanley cups that everyone goescrazy for, there's Yetis,
there's Oakley sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Wow, yeah, it's all mostly health related things.
It was interesting too.
We went back to Well on Targetthe program that we had before
through Blue Cross and looked atwhat people were spending their
.
It was blue points before.
What are people spending theirblue points on?
And I don't know if anyone elsefinds this interesting, but the
number one item people redeempoints for was the Gun and
(33:05):
Garden magazine, so we addedthat to our store.
Interesting Because TexasBecause Texas?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Because Texas.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I love it so much I was going to guess the
toothbrushes.
You know, I have to admit endof the year.
Right, it's the end of the year.
So, in the event that you maybeare budgeting, maybe you want
to get somebody a gift, ahealthy gift with your.
Buena Vida bucks, there aretoothbrushes and, of course, the
viral Stanley Cup that Angelicamentioned.
(33:31):
So, lacey, you're talking aboutthe future of Buena Vida.
Can you tell us what's in storefor the upcoming year?
Yes, so.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I'm super excited to announce our upcoming challenge.
It's called Trek Through Texas.
This is a state park-themedchallenge that we've been
working collaboratively withTexas Parks and Wildlife, WebMD
and ERS together and it's asix-week challenge and the goal
is to get 50,000 steps in a week, which is about 7,000 steps a
day.
7,000 is what we know is reallyhelpful for heart health.
(34:05):
10,000 has kind of beendebunked.
I don't know if you all knewthat, but 10,000 is it's kind of
been debunked.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I don't know if y'all knew that, but 10,000 is no
longer Interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, I mean 10,000 is great, but 7,000 is really
where we see the most benefit.
After that it's not quite asmuch benefit.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
But if you want to do 10,000.
Well, that's good news.
Yeah, it's good news.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So, that's our goal is to get 50,000 steps a week,
and then you get entered into adrawing for a state parks pass
donated by Texas Parks andWildlife, and so that's, that's
our big challenge.
That starts on September 15.
And registration will open onSeptember 1.
And I also just want to share Iguess this is a good time to
share what's happening in thenext year.
(34:43):
Personally, I am actuallyleaving my role here at ERS, and
so this is a little bittersweetto announce, but I think this
is a good forum to kind of pushthat out, because, yeah, I just
want to make sure everybodyknows we'll miss you, we will
miss
Speaker 3 (34:59):
you.
You'll be so missed.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, well, I'm gonna miss you all.
It certainly is, like I said,bittersweet is the emotion for
leaving this amazing place.
I have really loved, loved theopportunities that I've had here
and I absolutely love thepeople that I've had the
opportunity to work with andsupport across the state.
But I'm excited for the nextadventure.
(35:20):
I'm vested, you know I've beenwith the state close to 12 years
and so I'm just going to leavemy money here and smart move,
yeah, and maybe come back andfinish out with state government
and get a yeah, lots of peopledo that.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yeah, it's a good move.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
So you did your research and you spoke to the
most knowledgeable individualsthat you're aware of with an ers
to make sure that you're makingthe best decision for your
finances moving forward.
Of course, you're aware of whatyou're doing with your upcoming
role, but you wanted to be surethat you're aware of what
you're doing with your upcomingrole, but you wanted to be sure
that you were aware of whatyou're doing with your pension
and your 401k 457, everythingyou're doing with Texas Saver
(35:57):
prior to leaving, so that that'sreally amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And the program will continue.
We'll rehire for the role andpeople will still get an.
Evita and the.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
You know she set it up for success before she,
before she leaves us, and I knowyou know you've done amazing
work with that, lacey, socongratulations and a lot of
connections throughout the statewith our benefits coordinators
and those at the variousagencies we serve.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So thank you so much.
You did the great thing theNational Park things.
You left it better than youvisited it.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Oh, thank you, I love that.
I love that.
I guess the state parks.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, state parks, any parks, right?
Yes, nature, you're leaving usbetter than when you saw us and
you visited.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Thank you, Well, thanks for joining us, Lacey.
We really appreciate it Foreveryone listening.
Go download the Buena Vida app.
You'll have access to a ton ofresources, lots of things that
you didn't know existed in termsof offerings for your health
plan and well-being initiatives.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Thanks, lacey, again for being on today's episode.
We're going to miss you, butyou've left us with lots of
wonderful resources and, asalways, with our listeners, we
love to get your feedback on anyof the things we've been
discussing or what you'd like tohear in future episodes.
So please send us your ideas atstory underscore, ideas at
erstexasgov, because we'd loveto hear your thoughts On Money
(37:21):
Talks.
This material is forinformational purposes only and
is not intended to provideinvestment, legal or tax
recommendations or advice.
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Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.